THE SEATBELT CREW

Silver Spike

Case Film

Presentation Board

TitleTHE SEATBELT CREW
BrandCHANNEL V / STAR TV
Product / ServiceROAD SAFETY AWARENESS
CategoryA02. Corporate Responsibility
EntrantOGILVY & MATHER INDIA Mumbai, INDIA
Entrant Company OGILVY & MATHER INDIA Mumbai, INDIA
Advertising Agency OGILVY & MATHER INDIA Mumbai, INDIA
Production Company RGBA STUDIOS Mumbai, INDIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Abhijit Avasthi Ogilvy&Mather India National Creative Director
Rajiv Rao Ogilvy&Mather India National Creative Director
Zenobia Pithawalla Ogilvy&Mather India Executive Creative Director
Ryan Mendonca Ogilvy&Mather India Associate Creative Director
Vishal Bagade Ogilvy&Mather India Associate Creative Director
Francis Thomas Ogilvy&Mather India Copywriter
Ritik Sachdev Ogilvy&Mather India Art Director
Nithin Narayan Ogilvy&Mather India Art Director
Faramarz Wankadia RGBA Studios India Director/Producer
Vikas Munipalle Freelancer Director Of Photography
Rohit Sharma RGBA Studios India Line Producer
Manohar Nayak Lingo India` Sound Producer
Roshan Machado Freelancer Music Director
Prashant Bhise Freelancer Editor
Kapil Bhatia Mango Orange Films Production Manager

The Campaign

Channel V's VithU app all about safety. We decided educate reckless motorists who ignored the seat belt safety rule in a way that would create buzz. Indian transgenders (known as hijras) are unique - we consider them sacred, touched by god, and their blessings are regarded as auspicious. In fact, many of them make their livings exchanging blessings for cash at traffic signals. We got hijras to remind reckless motorists at traffic signals about the basic safety procedure of wearing a seat belt. But they did it in the same manner that an airline crew would give a flight safety briefing. The video of the activation was posted on YouTube and received millions of views and was the top trending video in India (Source: YouTube, week 19). The Twitter handle created for the activity gained hundreds of followers and mentions a day. The video was shared thousands of times on social networks, aggregator sites like buzzfeed.com and blogs. It was also covered in hundreds of mainstream news articles and shows. With a cost of under USD 5,000, we garnered earned media worth over 1.7 million. Most importantly, conversations on seat belt safety went up by 197900% in a single week.

The Brief

People were ignoring any messaging that told them to wear seat belts, and any advertising on the issue had become a blind spot. So we needed to deliver the message in a way they simply couldn't ignore.

Results

Millions of views on YouTube, India’s most popular video. (Source YouTube: week 19) Covered by hundreds of aggregator sites and Twitter (via @seatbeltcrew) Featured in mainstream media (BBC UK, Telegraph UK, New York Daily News) Cost: Under $5000 USD. Earned Media : Over 1.7 million. Seat belt safety conversations up by 197900% in a single week.

Execution

We got hijras to deliver a seat belt safety briefing to motorists at traffic signals while they were waiting for the signal to turn green. Except, we got them to do it in the same way flight attendants would deliver a flight safety briefing. This got people to pay attention. The video of the activation was then uploaded to maximize the reach of the campaign. The twitter handle (@seatbeltcrew) was created to allow people to have a direct conversation with the Seatbelt Crew and spread the message of safety.

The Situation

Channel V wanted to build positive conversations around the issue of safety for it's safety app called VithU. Since India's streets are pretty dangerous, we decided to get reckless motorists wear their seat belts.

The Strategy

To get motorists to wear their seat belts, we used the help of people who spent a lot of time at traffic signals - hijras (Indian transgenders). Indian transgenders are not like their counterparts elsewhere in the world. Indians consider them sacred, touched by god, and their blessings are considered auspicious. That's why many of them make their living exchanging blessings for cash at traffic signals. Hijras are people you simply cannot ignore.